Wolf gets reprieve from ethics board

Thursday

Aug 29, 2013 at 2:00 AMSep 5, 2013 at 3:58 PM

Two days before state Sen Daniel Wolf was set to resign, the State Ethics Commission granted him an extension to comply with the conflict-of-interest law, allowing him to hold on to his Senate seat until at least Sept 19.

C. RYAN BARBER

A mere two days before state Sen. Daniel Wolf was set to resign, the State Ethics Commission on Tuesday granted him an extension to comply with the conflict-of-interest law, allowing the Cape Air founder to hold on to his Senate seat until at least Sept. 19 as he fights to keep his political career alive.

Wolf announced the extension in a statement Wednesday but said his run for governor will remain suspended until the ethics matter is resolved.

He requested the extension Monday and said it was granted the next day, adding that he planned to petition the commission for a regulation clearing the way for "citizens from many walks of life to enter public service while protecting the public from any potential conflicts or undue influence."

"I extend my thanks to the commission and its staff for its continuing willingness to further examine this issue, knowing its strong commitment to enforcing and expressing the letter and spirit of the law," Wolf, a Democrat from Harwich, said in a prepared statement issued Wednesday, when he announced the extension.

"Until then, I will remain as state senator for the Cape and Islands with hopes of a positive resolution to this matter, which would also allow me to resume my gubernatorial campaign."

Wolf said he would "join with a group of civic-minded people" to submit the petition before the commission's Sept. 19 meeting and then release it to the public. In the statement, Wolf said the petition would urge the commission to adopt a regulation, rather than contest its interpretation or application of the conflict-of-interest law.

Wolf declined to comment beyond the prepared statement, which did not provide details about the petition.

In an Aug. 2 opinion on Wolf's status as a public servant, the commission contends that the senator's connection to Cape Air gives him a prohibited interest in state contracts because the airline has agreements with the Massachusetts Port Authority to fly in and out of Logan International Airport in Boston.

In its opinion, the commission says Wolf does not qualify for the exemption to the conflict-of-interest law because he owns more than 10 percent of Cape Air and airlines do not use a competitive bidding process to lease terminals at Logan.

David Giannotti, a commission spokesman, said the agency's staff granted the extension so Wolf could present his petition. Since issuing its opinion on Wolf, commission staff have met several times with him and his staff, Giannotti said.

The formal opinion gave Wolf 30 days to decide between his political career and the company he founded 25 years ago. Last week, Wolf said he could not "in good conscience" pursue the options for remaining in politics, so he suspended his gubernatorial campaign and said he would resign today if the commission refused to reconsider.

Wolf said discontinuing service to Boston would destroy the company and sacrifice 1,000 jobs. And selling his 20 percent ownership stake, he said, would saddle employees with "serious debt" through the employee stock ownership plan, leaving him no choice but to resign his Senate seat.

Wolf has argued that Cape Air's contracts with Massport, which date back to eight years before his first election in 2010, are non-negotiable and leave no room for political influence.

In a rare public statement issued earlier this month, the commission stood by its opinion and disputed Wolf's contention that the agency never led him to believe Cape Air could potentially pose a conflict of interest.

"In his dealings with the commission, Senator Wolf was never led to believe that no conflict existed,'' the commission wrote. "In fact, he was advised that he likely had a substantial problem under the conflict law, and that he would be given specific advice after he provided the Massport contracts. Senator Wolf provided the contracts, but announced his intention to run for governor before receiving that advice."

The commission has since drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle, as politicians including Senate President Therese Murray and business leaders have voiced concern that the opinion stands to shut entrepreneurs out of public office.

Murray said earlier this month that the opinion "seemed like a harsh result." Nancy Kwan, a Murray spokesman, said Wednesday that "as of now, the Senate president does not have a comment."

"The reactions of most people have been — really across political differences — is that the decision may be technically right but it is practically odd," he said.

Bill Vernon, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, wrote the commission Monday with concerns that the opinion could have a "chilling effect" on entrepreneurs pursuing elective office.

Although he acknowledged that "we are not political allies by any stretch of the imagination," he supported Wolf's right to serve in the state Senate and run for governor.

"There are thousands of small business men and women whose service at every level would be a benefit to the people of Massachusetts, and I'm concerned that this ruling could discourage their interest and deny voters the chance to consider some very highly qualified candidates for public office," Vernon wrote in the letter to commission Executive Director Karen Nober.

Susan Truitt, a 76-year-old Osterville resident, has spent the past week organizing a rally that was to be held at noon today on the Statehouse steps to protest the commission's finding. On Wednesday, Truitt canceled the bus trip to Boston, crediting newspaper stories, editorials and sharp criticism of the decision as factors in turning a "dispute into a negotiation."

"We do not have a victory for those of us who think the commission's ruling is wrong," she said. "But we do have the beginning of what could be a sensible solution. Now is not the time for more heat. Let us pray that cool heads prevail."

Pam Wilmot, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Massachusetts, said she hoped the commission would consider new exemptions allowing officials to hold office. The commission has the authority to provide regulatory exemptions under a law passed in 2004, she said.

"I hope that they will look at whether exemptions are appropriate for this case or whether new regulations should be adopted, which we think they should be," Wilmot said.

Wilmot, who urged the commission to reconsider its position Monday, declined to specify how she believed the regulations should be changed but said "there will be more details on that forthcoming."

Given the amount of criticism against the commission's opinion, state Rep. Randy Hunt, R-Sandwich, said he found it odd that Wolf "would lie down on this one without a fight."

"Now we see that he isn't," he said.

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